Melbourne high school robotics teacher Michelle Magalona thriving in second career

Michelle Magalona spent more than a decade designing hi-tech computer chips before becoming a teacher – and her students are now benefiting from her real-world experience.

Knowing how to do something doesn’t always translate to knowing how to teach it.

But for former electronics engineer Michelle Magalona, teaching has turned out to be as natural as breathing.

“When I finished my Bachelor degree in 2000, I begged my department head to let me teach an engineering basics subject at my uni,” recalled Ms Magalona, now of Suzanne Cory High School in Werribee.

“I was doing that part time on top of my work and some postgrad study, and I loved it, but life got in the way.”

RELATED: 64 years and counting: Lessons from Vic’s longest serving teacher

For more than 10 years, she designed hi-tech computer chips in countries like the Philippines, Singapore and the US for companies such as STMicroelectronics and Lexmark.

“Think of those chips that go inside everything – part of my job was to ‘code’ hardware and test it,” Ms Magalona said.

While she enjoyed her work, she and her husband decided to move back to Australia in 2011, where “the balance of education, wellbeing and academics” was better for their family.

Suzanne Cory High School robotics and mathematics teacher Michelle Magalona in her classroom with members of her year 10 robotics class, Amnah Adnan and Akash Mahalanabis. Picture: Tony Gough

Fast forward to the Covid pandemic and Ms Magalona was ready for a change. Having taken the previous decade off work to raise her two children, she was ready to go back – the only question was, to which career?

“I was at a crossroads – should I go back to engineering or should I pursue teaching, which was always at the back of my mind?” Ms Magalona said.

Teaching won out. Aided by the Department of Education and Training Victoria’s drive to get more mid-career professionals from other fields into teaching, Ms Magalona’s dream to be a teacher came true in 2021, when she was thrust into the classroom as part of an intense course.

MORE: ‘I’d say I love you’: Adorable messages to Aussie teachers

Now in her fourth year in the classroom, Ms Magalona teaches systems engineering and maths at Suzanne Cory – and she’s making a big impact.

Her background as an engineer helps bring real-world learning into her classroom. In her Year 10 robotics class, students don’t just learn theory – they build, create and solve problems together, like they would in a real job.

Ms Magalona connects her students with volunteer mentors from CSIRO’s STEM Professionals in Schools program, like Rob Jessop. Picture: Tony Gough

“We use project-based learning, which means students apply skills from different subjects all at once – like science, maths and design – rather than learning in separate ‘silos’,” she said.

Ms Magalona connects her students with volunteer mentors from CSIRO’s STEM Professionals in Schools program, who provide advice and support on projects that mirror real engineering work.

Outside the classroom, she’s passionate about making high-quality education accessible to everyone by running an outreach mentoring program with three other select-entry schools – Melbourne High, Mac.Robertson Girls’ and Nossal High – to help more Year 5 and 6 students from diverse backgrounds get into gifted programs.

Follow our Australia’s Best Teachers advocacy series – in partnership with Officeworks, Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools, Education Perfect and BigAss Fans – via this link.

Originally published as Melbourne high school robotics teacher Michelle Magalona thriving in second career